“How much more time have you got?” asks Michal Velebný, Skoda Depository’s head honcho, while we stare at a near-perfect light-green 110 L Rallye that has just arrived from a life in Cyprus.
An intriguing question, and one to which I already know the answer as I look at the Czech Republic-based Skoda rep staring both at his watch and my way. “About five, maybe 10 minutes,” I lie – but it’s a fib I would not long regret.
Velebný ushers us out of his workshop and guides us through the underbelly of Skoda’s treasure-filled Mladá Boleslav museum – which, in the building of the car maker’s old factory, houses more than 300 cars and pre-Skoda Laurin & Klement bikes – to where a large wooden door stands.
A padlock is opened and we enter a vast room of scattered metal, representing the 118-year history of the Czech brand. This is a room not many, bar select staff, set foot in. Not even the flush delegates get a look in here. The dust backs that up.
“Sorry for the mess,” apologises Velebný, while pointing to a half-restored 1960s Formula 3 car and a covered-up, chrome grille-clad Popular Monte Carlo. Where we are standing is one of many rooms that make up Skoda’s depository, a collection of unique, classic and rare gems collected by the Czech manufacturer.
There are almost 250 cars housed within the museum (that number doesn’t include the vehicles on show in the main building), either polished up and on display in the prototypes and sports cars depository or wherever they can fit in the old museum and its outbuildings. So big is the collection that a further 80 cars are also stored off-site.
“This car we restored from a burnt-out chassis,” says Velebný, standing over one of two 1958 1100 Coupés. “The driver got out the back window after it crashed.” This one is fitted with a special 91bhp OHC engine – a once-feared 555kg sports car so beautifully designed that it could easily be badged by one of Italy’s finest.
Previously owned by Hanus Hrabánek, father of Skoda Motorsport director Michal Hrabánek, it is the only example that remains in a roadworthy state. Velebný was one of a few to lead the restoration from a fire-damaged wreck. “It is a special car,” he adds.
There is another car he is keen to show us: a 1928 Skoda Hispano-Suiza 25/100 KS. Limited to just 100 units worldwide, fitted with a 6.6-litre aircraft-derived six-cylinder engine and weighing in at around two tonnes, the monstrous-looking car – one of just a handful to have survived to this day – sits on a ramp in the corner of the room.
